The Board of Trustees recently met for the first time on October 25 with the new student representative senior Maddie Ibara.

“It’s a big honor, if I’m being quite honest, and I’m super grateful that I got chosen out of all the applicants to be the student representative to the Board,” Ibara said.

Ibara collected data from students through a survey and turned the data into a presentation for the Board.

The current schedule was an issue on which she received various student opinions, specifically regarding Mondays.

“I think a lot of people were eager to express their opinion on the schedule, particularly the Monday schedule most of all, talking about what they suggested for upcoming changes to the Monday schedule,” Ibara said.

Ibara also brought forward the importance of balancing academic and personal life.

“A big part of education now is recognizing that mental health exists, and we need to take care of that as well,” she said.

To get some contrast, Ibara also separated responses between the average of the students and the class officer’s perspective on it as well.

“Results were a little different, but once I asked them to go deeper and explain, a lot of them had the same opinions,” she said.

Before going to the meeting, Ibara gave some of her thoughts and feelings about how the meeting would go.

“Honestly, I [was] a little nervous, because it [was] my first meeting and I’m going to be presenting to such a prestigious group, but I already know that I have earned the opportunity to be there, and I hope that we will be able to connect with each other,” she said.

After the meeting, President Paul Turnbull said he thought that the meeting went exceptionally well.

“Maddie is articulate, she presents well, she understands how to translate between what students are looking for and what they need, and how to express that to a high-level group of individuals,” he said.

This is the third year that the board is meeting with a student representative, Ibara being the second person to fill the position after Julian Ibarra graduated last year.

Turnbull said that from the perspective of the Board, being able to hear directly from students allows the Board to make better and more informed decisions.

“Having a student representative on the Education Committee means that there is one more crucial data point that the Board has and that I have as the president. It makes the board members, and it definitely makes me feel like we were able to do something that was in direct response to student discourse,” he said.

As for the future of student representation on the board, Turnbull hopes that it won’t cease anytime soon.

“I would hope [this program runs] in perpetuity. I hope that someone is going to sit in your seat and in my seat a hundred years from now (because we’re 114 years old), and be talking about perhaps something wonderful,” he said.